Details
by Corilyne
Summary: *AsCast Challenge!* Short one-shots dealing with the Pevensies attacking Mr. Beaver, Mr. Tumnus milking a centaur, and more!
1. In which Mr Beaver is attacked

Inspired by AsCast from Narnia fan fiction revolution!

Sadly, I don't even own the idea…

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"Peter, how can we trust that beaver? He could be on the Witch's side; maybe she gave him the gift of speech!" Susan hissed to me.

"Well, he said he knows Tumnus, and Tumnus saved Lucy…their ideas can't be _that_ different if they're friends…" I said, still trying to sound even _remotely_ in control of the situation.

"Peter, honestly! He can't be trusted!" she insisted.

"What do you want me to do, Susan?!" I exploded in an angry whisper, "We'll freeze to death out here alone, and as Ed pointed out to me earlier, we haven't the _slightest_ idea of how to get back, nor if the wardrobe will let us back through! We have no _choice_ but to follow him!"

"Oh, goodness, Peter…" she said softly, "You're right! We don't even know _where_ he's taking us, either! What if he takes us to the Witch?"

"Well," I said, again trying to sound reassuring, "As I said before, he's a _beaver_. If he truly _is_ an enemy, then I think we're _more_ than evenly matched."

"She smiled, "Yes, that's true. Beavers are usually good; it's the rat and wolves and such that are bad."

I nodded, proud of myself for cheering her up.

As we got further into the woods, however, I grew uneasy all over again. There were dark, snow-covered shapes everywhere. The beaver had said something about the trees talking and being spies, so he was either completely batty or he was a traitor; it seemed to me that he was talking rather loudly for one who had urged so much caution. And it was _awfully dark_…_anything_ could happen here, where no one could see us.

I call my current state-of-mind (for this time) "wary," but when we passed a huge, _fresh_ wolf print in the snow, I was downright suspicious. "Mr. Beaver" didn't even quicken the pace! It only told me that he knew that the wolves wouldn't harm him, or that he just wasn't paying much attention and therefore was at fault for not being alert in the shadowy woods. Either way, I didn't trust him.

"Su!" I hissed.

She turned towards me, showing me her pale face and wide eyes: classic signs of terror.

"Did you see that?" I asked.

She nodded wordlessly, and I grabbed her hand. It was cold, clammy, and she was shaking.

Maybe that was what did it: knowing that my sister was scared, and this beaver, our guide and temporary guardian, didn't do anything about it. If Susan was scared, then Lucy was probably terrified out of her mind. (She had had a dream about being circled by huge wolves once. She had woken me up with her screaming.) Edmund inched closer to me; whether it was a conscious idea or not, I don't know, but he was obviously nervous and jittery as well.

I ran towards "Mr. Beaver" (How did we know that that was his real name? It could have been something like Thomas, or Robert!) and tackled him. Edmund soon joined me, as did Lucy. Susan stood to the side for a moment, looked around at the intimidating trees, and then joined in as well.

In the ensuing "battle," I was kicked, punched, shoved, and bitten (I was really trying to pin the beaver down, but I was always knocked away), but it was when someone raked me across the cheek with their nails that I finally grabbed the two nearest people (Edmund and Lucy) and tossed them out of the fray and into a snow drift, then I got a hold of the other two and pulled them away from each other.

We all stood looking at each other for a few moments before Lucy smiled through a bloody lip (I couldn't help wondering if I had given her that, and more importantly: would it get around to Mum if I had!) and said,"That was fun!"

I smiled back a bit and then let the grin drop. I took a quick survey of everyone's injuries. Ed had a bruise on one cheek and his nose was trickling a bit of blood (leave it to him to get the most wounds), and Susan had a scrape under her eye and a clump of fur from her coat was missing.

It was quiet for a moment as we stood there, panting.

"Why'd you go and do that?" Mr. Beaver asked indignantly.

I gave him a steady gaze (racking my brain for an excuse that seemed reasonable. "You seemed suspicious" wouldn't have worked.), and finally said, "Just remember that _that_ is what happens if you even _think_ about lying to us, no matter how trivial the matter."

And the funny thing: we weren't even remotely betrayed by those two beavers at any time during our reign!

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As I said before, this is for the hosts of AsCast, the Narnia podcast from NFFR (I sound like and advertisement!). If you haven't listened to them, go look them up on iTunes!

Please review!

~Cori


	2. In which Mr Tumnus Milks a Centaur

Chapter 2

Thanks for all the reviews, everybody!

Mr. Tumnus is young in this story, by the way.

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"You…you want me to _what_?" I asked nervously.

"You heard me, Tumnus. I dare you to _milk Mrs. Clover_," Peric said, smirking.

Now, daring me to milk a cow wasn't hard; I'd done it before. Even milking a _talking_ cow wasn't _that_ bad, she'd probably just be extremely offended and talk to my father about it. This was _Mrs. Clover_. Mrs. Clover was terrifying, and we all gave her the amount of terror that she deserved. She was practically a bull; she's so huge and mean. Her home was even up on a cliff.

The legend was that she had been a talking cow, but Calormenes tried to capture her and bring her to the Tisroc. We'd never figured out why, but they were Calormene. Who knew with them? Anyway, one of the cow-nappers was found practically dead, he was so battered and bruised, and the other one went missing. I'm not sure if he was ever found.

If I tried to milk Mrs. Clover, like Peric had dared me to, not only would she be angry, but I'd have a permanent smashed nose, possibly even end up _dead_, like the one man mentioned before.

The reason for all this was that if I didn't take up Peric's dare, he would tell my father that I had accidentally popped our one of our only feather pillows, which doesn't seem that bad, but to him, it was.

That's how I came to be staring up at the huge cliff that Mrs. Clover lived on, with Peric and Lissy watching me. Peric's excuse for not going all the way to the top was that he was a centaur and was not as good a climber as I, being a faun, was. Lissy's was that because she was a dryad, she needed to be able to catch me if I fell, even though she was practically a sapling. I didn't expect her to, though; she was too young.

I gulped and started to climb.

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Halfway up, I made the mistake of looking down. The ground was so far away! I could make out two small shapes- Peric and Lissy.

My hands were sweating and my arms were trembling. I'd never climbed this high before, and I knew I would never make it up or down in this condition. I hung there until I saw a cave in the side of the cliff.

I barely made it in. My hands grasped the floor and I hauled myself up. I lay there gasping until I was finally able to get air.

Then I looked up. There was Mrs. Clover, staring down at me with her black eyes. I scrambled backwards and my hand slipped off the edge. I peeked over my shoulder and decided that if I fell, I had a small chance of living.

I faced the mad cow again. She lunged, and I fell backwards down the cliff.

After all the trouble of climbing up to the halfway point, it took a very short time for me to make it back down. I did a few summersaults, which took my line of vision from Lissy's wide open mouth and Peric's shocked expression to Mrs. Clover up in her cave.

My stomach was in my throat and I vaguely wondered what happened in I was sick while flying through the air.

Just as I was positive that I would hit the ground and make an indent forever, I was caught. By a tree.

_Lissy._

She became a girl again and fell over with me on top of her.

Peric trotted up and grabbed me.

"Are you alright? What were you thinking, going all the way up there? I was joking, you know!"

"No, I didn't," I whimpered, "If you don't mind, I'll stay here until I can walk again."

He dumped me back on the ground and turned to Lissy who had dusted herself off quite nicely.

"How are you?" he asked gently, "Okay?"

She nodded, still staring at me, "I dust…caught you…wif my bare hands!" she lisped.

"Mm-hmm."

"But you know…" Peric said, "Because you didn't finish that dare, maybe you should milk a centaur instead…"

"What?!" my head came up from my pillow of rock.

"Joking, joking…" he grinned, "Still, think about it…"

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Years later, I thought back on that dare. How would one go about milking a centaur?

I decided to find out. With Peric, just to get back at him.

My plan was that when the Four were crowned, there would be a banquet. I could fake being drunk, and possibly get away with it without my face being smashed in.

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The feast was well underway. I saw the back of Peric's head and began planning.

I tripped into him and he turned toward me.

It was then that I realized that this was not Peric. It was someone else.

I jumped back and he shook his head, sighing.

"Hello," I squeaked.

"No, it won't work. I'm part horse, not part bull."

"How'd you know?" I whimpered.

"Peric," he answered.

Oh, yes. Peric was his cousin; he would have been told about that dare.

"It was all his fault!" I protested.

"I'm sure it was," he agreed, "Now, I won't tell anyone about this, but don't try it again."

I nodded and ran off to find Peric.

"I tried it," I gasped, flopping into a chair.

"Tried what?"

"Milking a centaur."

"You _what_?!"

"Yes, I tried. It doesn't work."

"Glad you know... who was it?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

"Oreius."

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Most centaurs avoided me after that.

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This chapter got carried away, too…

Well, please tell me what you think!

~C


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